What's New

Ham radio so far has been fun, but there is still so much more that I can do and am only limited by money!!

Work is still work, plenty of time until I get to retire. Hopefully there is still an America left when I get to that point. Maybe I'll blog about that sometime!

As per normal I haven't posted on here in a long time, so I doubt that anyone even reads this, but heck I'll add my voice to the many on here on cyberspace!! Check out my youtube channel to see all what I've been up to.

Geezz I forgot about this blog

Well it's been ages since I've even known that I created this blog. So much has happened since my last post. My grandfather has passed away, I had surgery to remove 12" of my colon, work has been just work. It's been over 6 years since I've moved to Texas. Where does the time go?

I am at a point in my life now that really seems to have reached stagnet point. Nothing coming or going, just living one day at a time.

Some recent news I have taken and passed my Ham operator license test. I am KF5HHJ until my new vanity call sign gets approved at which time I'll be KM5ART. For those who know me, you know that I'm all into lightbars and whatnot, so Kmart fits me.

I'm hoping to maybe start writing some more, but who knows. I'm so busy doing nothing that things really seem to slip my mind.

I'll see about getting on here more often, but no promises.

I am a horriable Blogger

Yep, the year is more then half way over and I havn't written anything. But that's pretty normal for me. I am about to go on vacation, so I'm happy about that. Only 19 more days then I'm home free for 2 weeks.

So what's new, well it's hot. No make that HOT!!!!! Stupid hot, and my car has no AC...(donations for Shane's car AC repair can be sent to magilla_8@yahoo.com via paypal) hehehe

There is not really that much big news to share since the begining of the year. I'm still working day shift at my job and loving it. I never thought I'd be a morning person (really I'm not, but it sure is nice to go home early). The dogs are doing good, so is Chrissy.

If I have any readers out there I want to say thank you for checking in on me, and sorry that I have let you down by not posting a blog more often. Hey, I'm a work in progress, what can I say.

My Youtube Channel

Come check out my youtube channel. I try to upload videos as often as I can. Just check them out here you'll enjoy...I hope

Is Debt an issue for you?

Well, Debt is sure an issue for me. Starting next month I am going to start using a debt snowball plan. This plan is actually quite simple. You take the bills that you are currently paying on, for example student loans, mortgage, credit cards, car payments, etc... There are other types of bills that you will not include in the snowball, those are regular monthly bills such as electric, gas, water, cable, phone, etc... Also you do not want to include credit cards that you plan on still using.

I have downloaded a free excel sheet that you can enter your information in, and it will show you how to apply your payments. Ideally, you want to set it up to pay the highest interest items first, thus saving you the most money in interest, however by snowballing lowest to highest, you will see faster results on the lower balance bills, which makes you feel a better sense of accomplishment.

Debt Reduction Calculator for Excel - Download a free Debt Snowball Calculator and Debt Reduction Schedule spreadsheet from Vertex42.com.

The basics of this form of debt payment is that you take all of the bills you are going to pay, enter in the most current balance, the interest rate, and the minumn payments for each account. Then you decide how much you can afford to pay each month on bills. This amount must be higher then the payment amount. I suggest setting this amount at least $50 more per month, but the higher you can go, the faster your bills will be paid off.

Another part of getting in a better spot financially, is setting a budget for yourself. Everything boils down to spending your money the smartest way possible. The basics of a budget are to make sure that you spend less then you bring in. Income vs Expenditures. When figuring your income, use only your base bring home pay. Do not include any overtime, holiday pay, or any bonus money. If you have a 2nd job, try not to include that income in your budget unless you have to.

Some tips on paying utility bills. Since these usually vary month by month, it may be easier to set up average billing with the utility companies. This helps keep the amount about the same every month. You can do this with most electric companies, gas companies, and sometimes even to pay your water bill.

Another thing to keep in mind, it's cheaper to eat at home then it is to eat out. Set in your budget a set dollar amount for dining and entertainment and stick to it. Maybe you can eat out once a week, or twice a month. Movies maybe 1 a month, or maybe a sports event. Whatever you decide, put it down in writing and make sure you have the money.

You will also want to try to get a savings account set up. I use ING Direct I like this because it has a higher interest rate then most banks, and it's online and easy to use. You can set it up to automatically take money from your checking account and have it deposited in your savings. Just do me a favor, if you decide to use this as a savings account, let me know first. I can refer you (maybe get $10 out of the deal if you open with a large enough deposit)

If you have any questions on any of this, feel free to ask me.

It's 2008

Well, another year has come and gone, and heck I don't even know where it went!! We are almost at a year in our new house, I miss my truck, I got to see my family...TWICE!! And of course there is work. Many people have come and gone this year, so many new faces. It's just crazy.

Christmas was good this year even though it didn't feel like christmas at all. I don't know about you, but it is just so commericalized and just blah. Other then the presents, I just didn't feel it this year.

I only get on here every once and a while, probably becasue no one reads this and it's more like a diary per say, but what the heck, I'll write to myself, and if anyone else reads this, thats cool also. I wonder if I put a post with something sexual in the title if it would generate more hits? I'll give it a shot, (but not from work)

If I have any blogger readers out there, feel free to comment. If there is anything you'd like to hear about, let me know, I'll try to make stuff up!! Not really, but seriously I enjoy looking up information and passing it on to others.

I'll post more later.

Tips to Improve your gas milage

As we all know, Gas is expensive so any way that you can cut back your usage is a good thing. You if you can save a gallon of gas a month by changing your driving habits, car pooling when you can, running your errands in one trip instead of many smaller trips, etc... that would be great. Looking at this in terms of you, and indivdual, it doesn't seem like much. But what if you and the other drivers in the US were to save a gallon a month. I'm not sure how many drivers there are, but lets just say 196 million, which According to the Federal Highway Administration is the number of drivers in 2003. If every driver were to save 1 gallon, that would be 196 million gallons of gas every month saved, and 1.15 billion saved every year. Lets look at this in terms of money. Lets say the average is $2.80 gal. That would mean $2.68 million saved a month, and $3.23 billion saved a year.

Gas Milage Website

It's been a while

Well, It has been a while since I last posted on here. Don't ask me why, it just is. We bought a house and man it's sure taking our money. I know that is what happens when you buy an existing home, but when you don't have much money, it sucks. I would like to get everything taken care of now so I don't have to worry about it. What I want to do is add to our attic insulation to bring it up to standards (and to keep our house cooler). I also want to replace every window in the house with energy efficent ones. I want to replace our back door as well as the door to our garage (to come inside, not the actual garage door). The next thing I'd like to do is completly replace our AC unit and have all the ducts resealed.

If I do all that, not only will we get a tax credit, but we should be able to cut our electric bills down by 30% or more. And that will be a long term blessing.

Vacation

Well, it's been a long time since I've gotten on here so I'll write a little bit about my vacation. It was long, but short at the same time. I was able to go home and spend time with my family. My wife wasn't able to go due to not having vacation time yet, so next time we'll go.

I am going to try to find a website where I can upload pictures for free and just add a link for people to view them. That would be very helpful, espically for those who want to keep up to date on our latest adventures or just our little Family.

I'm back to work with no other vacation in sight for a long time. I am courious to see how long I can keep up actual 5 day work weeks without taking anytime off. I want to see how much vacation time I can build up.

I go to day shift June 30th, so maybe that will make a difference. I'll be done at 3pm and maybe will be more willing to come in. But we'll see.

Proof that one small act can casue a huge effect on many peoples lives

Well, let me start by saying that I feel like a fool. Now I'll explain. On January 30, 2007 I set into motion some very big changes with one little act. I was driving in my truck to work, and for some reason decided that it would be a good time to run it in 4 wheel drive for a few minutes to work out the gears a little bit. So I reached up and pressed the button to put it into 4hi, and then it happend.

There was a very loud bang noise, and the truck ground down to 5 miles an hour and stayed there. I pulled off of the road and tried to get the 4 wheel drive to dis-engage to no avail. I called work to tell them that I was going to be late and then called a wrecker. So from this moment we were down to 3 vehicles for 4 drivers, and with $3000 needed to fix it, the truck is dead indefinalty.

My wife had to leave work early to come pick me up from the auto body shop. From that point on, we went home and I drove to work. In the following days I had to share a vehilce with my mother in law. This meant that on her days off I just used the car. On days that she had to work, I had to take her early, which meant that she had to sit around for about 45 minutes before she could start work. I then had to go pick her up after work.

Her car needed brakes bad, but because I was having to use it all the time, she couldn't get it in, which make it worse every day. On days that she had to work at 12pm I took her and someone else had to go get her.

Now to fast forward, to show even more how my small action continued to effect others. My brother offered to give me a car. He and my older sister just drove down here from NJ at their expense through a huge snow storm which caused the trip to last 3 days instead of 2. When they got here, they had no time to rest because they had to take my wife to work then come pick me up.

I was able to treat them to dinner at Risky's Steakhouse in the Stock yards, so that was good. Later last night my sister's asthma was casuing her to have difficlty breathing, so I took her to the ER at Harris Hospital for a breathing treatment. Well, we got there at 10pm and at 4:30am, she was finally released. It took forever, and it was exhusting. We got home at 5am and had to be back up at 7am to get to the airport to drop them off for their flight home today. The worst part is, if she was still at home, she could have been in and out of the ER, or better yet been able to see her doctor.

This has caused a burdon on so many people, all from a push of a button. I truly do feel like a fool.